A pie, a muffin and a number
by MyLittleFangirlWorld
Summary: In which Bokuto only wanted a nice atmosphere to write (and perhaps some pie) and accidentally lay eyes on the most beautiful person he'd ever seen. / In which Akaashi suddenly can't seem to be satisfied with not having Bokuto's voice around. (Author Bokuto and nearly deaf Violinist Akaashi.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: O~kay so here we go again I guess; I truly hope you'll find it worthwhile loves!**

Bokuto remembers an occasion, probably a year or so ago, when he and Kuroo had a lively discussion about the dream looks of a person. Like, what would the ultimate goddess look like? Bokuto had fought tooth and nail for reddish-brown hair while Kuroo wouldn't change his mind about blondes. They'd disagreed on a lot of different things ( _long nails are creepy! Seriously, brown before blue_?) and agreed on others ( _Cutely short? But bro. Bro. A tattoo!)._

Bokuto had a bit suspiciously asked if Kuroo was copying someone as his answers were quick and sure, but the other denied it instantly, so Bokuto let it go. So after a while, they'd both painted up what was for them the picture perfect looks of a person.

All of Bokuto's (apparently very stupid) thoughts about that matter were completely thrown out the window though, as he looked up from his laptop.

At a table ahead of him was _(without a doubt_ ) the absolute most beautiful person Bokuto had _ever_ seen.

Night dark hair, curls moving just slightly in the breeze from the door just as his jacket did. Black as well, in a felt fabric maybe too warm for the wheatear, but with a dark red blouse underneath. Under it was the definitions of ( _oh shit extremely_ ) perfect shoulders and a slim waist. Black shorts fully showing off long legs ( _damn, just_ **damn** ) that made Bokuto's breath hitch without him even noticing it. Wonderfully pale hands encircled a steaming cup of tea which contained the interest of his eyes, orbs of which Bokuto could only make out were dark from his side of the pastry shop ( _he would literally bet anything that they were just as pretty as the rest of him though, even though_ damn _, is someone allowed to be this pretty?!_ ).

Far beyond any expectations Bokuto could have thought were possible to have, the stranger was absolutely _beautiful_!

Finally realising he was holding his breath, Bokuto tried to avert his gaze just to have it shoot up a second later. He pried his gaze away ( _and actually managed like ten full seconds_!) before he looked up again. There was another person standing beside his newly beloved (oh _shit_ ) by then, and Bokuto could recognise him immediately by the unusual silvery hair. Sugawara, Daichi's boyfriend. He'd met him a handful of times ( _and had tried out his_ **amazing** _pastries much more often than that, so it was safe to say he loved the guy_ ) as Daichi was a close friend. He was also known as a declared angel on earth, as he always brought pastries when invited over ( _score_!) and had a smile that could light up anyone's day. Bokuto couldn't help ( _reallyreallyreally_ ) wanting to know if this dark-haired stranger had a heart stopping smile as well ( _and once again, Bokuto could bet pretty much anything that he had_ ).

It wasn't in itself surprising to see Suga here as it _was_ his bakery. They'd already exchanged a conversation when Bokuto bought the ( _amazing of course, he wouldn't have expected anything else from the best shop in the wide world_ ) orange mini pie currently half in front of him. No, what was surprising was that Suga was hanging over his lovely stranger's shoulders as he put down a chocolate muffin on the table. He was talking on fondly while throwing small and quick gestures with his hands. The ravenette seemed to be a little exasperated as he jokingly flicked Sugawara's forehead with an answer. Suga just chuckled though, kissing the other's cheek before going back to the sweetly propped desk.

He knew Suga was very friendly with people, but it was safe to say that the two apparently knew each other well. And therefor…

"SUGA," Bokuto breathed _(with a voice he honestly hadn't meant to be so loud_ ) as he leaned over the counter, making the shorter jump and frosting squirt.

He didn't seem to mind it though, just turned around with a bright smile at Bokuto. "Hi again Bo, something up?"

He couldn't help nodding his head pretty frantically. When he talked though his words came out a little stuttering and nervous in between excitement. "T-that guy over there, the one you talked with? Who's he?"

Sugawara looked at him with shock for a moment before shaking his head at himself with a small smile. "That's one of the room-mates I've told you about, Akaashi."

Bokuto immediately started racking his memories for comments about these roommates. He knew Daichi often complained exasperatedly about one that drove him crazy all the time back at the politics agency they both worked at. Apparently that one loved parties and had a huge crush everyone was sure was answered but never acted on. Bokuto surely hoped that it wasn't the case, but as he looked at Akaashi ( _what a beautiful name, so elegant…)_ in the emptiest corner he couldn't really see him as the partying type. When he thought about it, wasn't that person a brunette ( _I'll f'cking glue that tuss of brown on his head straight up and see if he keeps flirting at work all the time! Daichi had once muttered_ ) anyway? So that left the other one, the one who Suga said was a fantastic musician and an unbelievable night owl, the one Daichi once helped… Damn, bail out of jail. Huh, wonder what that was about.

Noticing Akaashi set down his tea to take up a small sketchpad though, he nodded mutely. So this was the one he'd heard about then. Bokuto felt his fingers literally itch to go over and look closely what color those eyes possessed, to feel if that skin really was as pearl perfect and smooth as it looked.

"Why don't you go introduce yourself then?" Sugawara asked, making the taller splutter on air.

" _What_?! I can't just-!" Bokuto protested, once again forgetting his volume. He was cut off in the middle anyway.

"And why is that?" 

"Ehm…" He had to take a moment to gather up his thoughts enough to explain properly that it was utterly impossible because "…He's _hot_."

Suga just giggled as Bokuto felt the blush attack. That wasn't what he'd thought to say, but his hormones were kind of, somehow, raging right now ( _which they weren't_ allowed _to be seeing as he was too old for that!_ ), and they reached his mouth before his brain.

"I promise he's- well, he won't bite," Sugawara reassured with a small shrug. "Try to say hi."

 _As if it's that simple_ , Bokuto thought, but still his feet started turning towards Akaashi. He took one step forward before suddenly darting back to Suga, face extremely red.

"But what if he's-!" here he quickly lowered his voice, "What if he's heard us talking? I mean I would literally _die_."

"Trust me, that won't be a problem." Bokuto probably just imagined that tiny, sad smile that grazed Suga's lips before he gestured encouragingly for him to go already. Bokuto couldn't help swallowing nervously before doing so.

He went up to stand slightly behind, slightly beside the ravenette, stopping at what he hoped was an appropriate distance for a conversation. From there he was damn sure that Akaashi's skin really was as smooth as it had managed to look even from the distance. He glanced over at what he was working on, actually managing to find an 'imperfection' in shortly bitten nails. He'd only seen it as an annoying habit when people had done that around him before, but frankly at the moment, he only found it cute.

The sketchpad was apparently filled with all kinds of lines, a paper Bokuto soon recognised as a music sheet. A pale hand was quickly and surely getting down notes and adding strange marks that he couldn't place ( _well, except for an occasional hashtag, whatever one of those could be dong on a sheet)._ Bokuto couldn't even begin to read them, nor figure out what instrument it was for, but it seemed as if the boy was trying to sketch up an idea on his mind before it escaped,

Realising he couldn't be rude and stand staring ( _and because he really wanted to start talking to this Akaashi, just as much as he was nervous to do so_ ) he quickly let out a hawk as soon as the writing had paused to get attention.

Akaashi didn't respond in the slightest though, only tactfully hitting the pen on the sheet a few times, ignoring him as much as he ignored Suga's muffin. Bokuto tried once again to hawk, putting forth a hand to nudge a black-clad shoulder.

Just as he moved his hand, Akaashi jumped a little, dropping his pen on the table. Darkly turquoise eyes ( _so deep they were nearly black daamn_ ) met Bokuto's golden ones, and they just looked at each other for a second before Akaashi said a simple "Yes?"

There was this little slur that Bokuto couldn't quite place in his voice, but still it was damn perfection, precise and beautiful, so where in all of this did the universe give Bokuto a chance to stay cool?! He could easily just blurt out 'you're like really super pretty and I want to touch your skin to test my hypothesis' anytime!

Instead, he went with, "I'm Bokuto." Akaashi nodded slowly once, so he took it as a cue to continue. "I know Suga. –Wara," he quickly corrected himself, smiling sheepishly as he held his hand out.

Akaashi looked at his hand for a bit before he took it, making Bokuto's brain immediately register how cute it was that Akaashi's cold hand was smaller, making it fit so perfectly in his own.

"Nice to meet you," the ravenette said, asking him how he knew Sugawara. Adding, "And it's okay, everyone calls him Suga."

"My best friend's friend is dating him," Bokuto answered, quickly panicking internally that it was much too long of a way in an acceptable talk-to strangers manner.

Akaashi let out a small snort ( _damn, why so cute?),_ folding his hands neatly in his lap. "Kuroo Tetsurou I assume?"

Bokuto drew back a tiny bit in shock before nodding curiously. "Yeah, we've known each other forever. How'd you know?"

"No p-particular reason," was his only response, and Bokuto couldn't decide if he'd imagined that tiny smirk ( _fucking gracing perfectly pinkish and thin lips help)_ or not.

"Sooo," Bokuto drew out, deciding that if he were to get anywhere, he had to pick up the regular flirting-charm. So he pulled out the chair on the opposite side of the table, sitting down with an "You come here often?" Huh, he actually pulled that of quite well ( _if he'd do say so himself_ ).

"Yeah," Akaashi answered, and Bokuto noticed how he picked up his pen to twirl it around a bit. He didn't seem nervous though, maybe it was simply a habit of his. "Suga-Suga's pretty much always here and it's nice"

"Hey, you know you don't have to be nervous. I promise I only bite the pies," Bokuto tried to say reassuringly but with a small grin to make it more at ease.

Akaashi just looked at him confusedly though, tilting his head ever so slightly. "I don't really understand what you mean-mean," he stated.

"Oh, just the stuttering. It's okay to be nervous around strangers but I promise-"

He was cut off though by Akaashi asking, "Stuttering?"

"Uhm…" was Bokuto's only genius reply, because he'd been sure that Akaashi'd heard that too! Had he deeply insulted him?! Akaashi's shoulders had lowered, just the tiniest bit, but he didn't let anything break his composure. Somehow Bokuto still got the very strong feeling that that had gotten to him, making Bokuto feel like the worst person ever. So, he continued with an even more genius "Of course not!"

Akaashi let out the tiniest of sighs, mumbling something short under his breath before he looked up again, to Bokuto's relief with an, "So what do you do for a living?"

At the pretty obvious change of subject, Bokuto immediately jumped into a ramble about how it was to be an author, complaining about how enormous his idea-dries could be but giving of watt-smiles as he explained how it was to morph the world into another universe.

Bokuto pretty quickly got the impression that Akaashi didn't speak a lot, but he hummed and never took his eyes of Bokuto as he spoke. He didn't exactly show much through that ( _oh shit so still goddamn beautiful exterior, from time to time Bokuto would even come off in his telling and catch himself getting lost again so fck he was a little screwed_ ) but Bokuto still felt like he was really payed attention too. It was really nice for a change, most people seemed to have the tendency to tire of him and his antics after a short while. He found quickly that he really enjoyed just getting out what he had on his mind, realising in the sarcastic and witty comments that would occasionally be replied.

Just as he quit his rambling and was about to ask what Akaashi did, said goddess spoke up.

"That sounds interesting." Akaashi took a small pause, as if contemplating weather or not to say it before he did. "I would like to read something of yours sometime."

And Bokuto just glowed up worse than the sun (maybe even surpassing Hinata's shine), eyes alight and nearly making Akaashi fall backwards as he himself jumped forwards. "That's great! I mean- yeah that would be gr- very pleasant!"

 _(Sometime. As in MIGHT MEET AGAIN. YIKES, SCREWED SCREWED SCREWED_ )

They continued talking, and after a while Akaashi even offered Bokuto his blessed muffin (that has to be a good sign!).

"Really? Are you sure?" Bokuto asked, trying to be as polite as Akaashi seemed to be (minus the snarky comments that kept up of course, but they were never harmful or such).

He just snorted slightly once, and yes, once again Bokuto couldn't help but think that it was an adorable sound. "If I'd eat everything Suga put forth I'd for sure be long dead."

Bokuto laughed, tilting his chair backwards. "Would you look at that, you can joke!" He said before immediately backtracking, realising that was incredibly rude and probably a little mean. He just kind of lost himself with how easy he found it to actually talk with Akaashi.

The boy blinked at him before shaking his head just the tiniest bit, still his black curls managed to swing from the movement. "Sadly I wasn't joking," He answered, but not irritatedly, he only sounded fond of his roommate as he explained. "Suga's passion in life is baking, and he always wants to try and make new stuff. As we live together, he's declared me and Tooru his personal Guinea pigs. It's kind of ridiculous how much he can come up with, last week he did this cinnamon and pomegranate cake, which worked scarily good. I-," Akaashi suddenly stopped talking, as if only then realising he was babbling to a stranger. Bokuto didn't stop to think about how the stutter was long gone, and as he himself was a very loud speaker he hadn't noticed how Akaashi's volume had been picked up.

Bokuto just nodded happily though, giving of a radiating smile. "Yeah, everything here is just _epic_ , I'm so jealous of you!"

Just as he said that though, Akaashi's eyes landed on his wristwatch, widening slightly and quickly putting down his few things in a shoulderbag over his chair. "I apologize, it was nice meeting you Bokuto-san, but I really have to go."

Bokuto nodded understandingly, albeit disappointed, standing up as well. "Okay, I understand! But it was fun!"

Akaashi smiled slightly as he looked down, nodding ( _Bokuto's heart of course managed to go ba-donk by that, even though he could barely see anything_ ). "Well, good bye then."

"Bye," Bokuto answered, sadness coating his tone. It wasn't until Akaashi had reached the door that Bokuto had come to his sense, gathering up the courage to shout his request after the other. "Hey, maybe we could do this again sometime?"

Akaashi didn't even turn around to face him though, giving no response as he just disappeared with a pling from the bell. Bokuto felt his shoulders dropping low, eyes downcast. "Okay then," he mumbled dejectedly to himself.

Seconds later he strolled over to the counter desk, collapsing on one of the round chairs beside it.

"Suga, the biggest cocoa you have to go please," he said, burying his head on his arms.

"Oh dear," was Suga's response, with a slight shake of his head that the other couldn't see. "Sweetie, listen up." It was spoken in the gentle voice that was pretty trademark Suga, yet it was obviously an order that Bokuto didn't dare deny _(because Daichi had warned him that in every angel, a demon hides, and even if he wasn't sure about that being true, he wasn't testing his luck today)._

So he raised his head, eyes probably betraying just how dejected he felt, because he could never help wearing his emotions on his sleeve. He'd actually found someone who actually seemed to care about what he had to say, even if it wasn't always the brightest of thoughts all the time. And then he'd been flat out rejected, not deemed important enough to even get a look or a response.

"Keiji has very bad hearing," Suga told him directly, making Bokuto straighten up into a sitting position from the shock of that sudden statement. "He probably couldn't hear you over the distance and chatter, neither could he see your lips or anything."

Bokuto let his mind wrap around the thought. Akaashi was deaf? Okay, no he had bad hearing. That would actually explain quite a lot, maybe even why he talked so little as well. Before he could further dwell on the matter, Suga continued.

"But if you want to, I could give him your number?" Bokuto immediately shone up, only to a let his huge smile drop to a small neglected one.

"That would be very nice but…" He started with a small sigh. "I don't really think he liked me that much, so maybe it was for the best."

Suga let out a small laugh, shaking his head. "Trust me, I've known him for years. He's not usually a fan of talking to strangers, he's simply habitually introverted. He must have really liked you though, not even telling you to get out of his 'almighty personal space'. If you'd been anyone else, he would for sure have kicked that chair away under you just as you'd sit down. He's just like that sometimes," Suga stated with a fond voice and a warm smile. "So trust me when I'm telling you he enjoyed your company, just as much as you enjoyed his, okay Hun?"

That was another way of Suga giving an order apparently, slipping a note to him with seven digits on it over the counter. The sneaky angel must have anticipated him and written it before he even got there.

Bokuto just stared at it for a moment, digits jumbling together in his occupied mind. One thought seemed to be repeated more often though, because _Akaashi liked him_?

Eventually he closed his eyes with a broad smile playing on his lips, taking the note and putting it in the front pocket of his baggy jeans. "I'll make sure to call him then."

 **A/N: There might be a continuation of this (following Akaashi) but I'm not sure… Does anyone want one?**

 **I truly hope no one was offended by Akaashi's lowered hearing, I know it's a big dilemma and real problem as any other and if I was in any way at all disrespectful towards it, please let me know and I'll instantly correct it.**

 **Anyhow, thanks a lot for your time, it means a ton to me! I wish you a great day dearest, -hugs MJ**


	2. Chapter 2

Akaashi lay on his bed with his face pressed into a pillow, legs swinging back and forth endlessly as he thought over the day. The meeting with Semi, an amazing cellist from out of town, definitely wasn't the most interesting thing that had happened today. That had been his original thought, but somehow he found that it wasn't. Because if there was one word he would use to describe Bokuto Koutarou, it definitively was 'interesting'. At first, he'd been taken back, not only because he was suddenly pulled from his thoughts deeply burrowed in music sheets. No, what first caught his attention was the spiky white and black hair, looking very much like Oikawa's set of make-up brushes. Then he'd met golden eyes, and Akaashi was sure he'd never seen anything like them before. They were beyond stunning, and so striking that they might as well have gone through his soul.

As the young man had extended his arm ( _a beefy piece of beefiness that Akaashi couldn't help notice and memorize_ ) and presented himself, Akaashi had actually done the same without really thinking about it. He hadn't been annoyed as Bokuto sat down, even if it would for sure make Akaashi forget about the small piece he'd been thinking about before. In any other case, he probably wouldn't have let a stranger sit down so close to him without a valid reason either. He didn't like talking to people he didn't know, not talking in general to those he didn't trust as it made him really insecure. He'd been near to get up from his chair as it had been pointed out he stuttered ( _something he accidentally did when he had his hearing aid and could hear that it was going wrong)_ but he hadn't, because he'd quickly found that he liked listening to the other. He talked really quickly, and that was kind of hard seeing as Akaashi wasn't a hundred on reading lips yet, but he also spoke really loudly so it wasn't really a problem. Frankly it just felt nice to hear a voice for so long ( _even though he still couldn't clearly make out the words, but the lip reading helped_ ), so after a while he turned his hearing advice up on a level beyond recommendation. His ears still buzzed quite a bit from that, but he couldn't bring himself to care as Bokuto's warm and silly voice just continued to go around in his thoughts.

His eyes did as well, Akaashi realised as he got up from the bed, walking to his drawer to open up his violincase. He took up the instrument, and without bothering to record or think too much about it, he let the tunes of his mind flow out. This song was different than the ones he'd played lately, he made it lively and fast and playful, strong but gentle. He probably made tons of mistakes as he had no muscle memory from this one and could barely hear a thing, but it didn't really matter to him. It wasn't important that it was right, he just had the need to let out some of these new feelings suddenly inside him. Soon he was back into the bubble he always seemed to be in when he was playing his music His bubble allowed all of his engraved memories from the tunes to come forth, but for once he was accompanied by a person that wasn't even present.

Once again he found that he lost the time, as he always seemed to do while playing. That was probably the main reason for why he even started playing anyway. He'd been eight years old when he'd found a dusty violin up in the attic he wasn't even supposed to go up to. Actually, there were lots of areas he wasn't allowed to go to in his mother's house ( _filled with many valuable objects and collections that couldn't risk being damaged by 'a filthy child'),_ but back then he still had silly curiosity in him. He'd carefully dusted it off, taking a few minutes to figure out that the stick beside it was for made for producing sounds from the unknown instrument. He had quickly covered his ears though as he took one note, and it sounded as if someone put a screwdriver in a pen sharpener or something. As it did, he'd just happily laughed, trying another string to produce a sound just as bad. And so he experimented. Screwing on the screws at the top until the strings weren't as loose, because they seemed to make more sounds that way. And he'd played. Tried over and over and laughed at the fun noises it would make, taking turns at being in awe at beautiful tones that would sometimes go through the air. It had been a long time since he'd laughed as much as he did at that simple instrument. Looking back years later, maybe his captivation had to do with the mindless eight years old thought that crossed his mind. That dusty instrument looked just as abandoned and closed off as he'd felt.

So he'd taken it with him, hiding the beautiful wood structure under his bed and playing as soon as his mom left to work. There was always an hour before his current private teacher came, and at least two afterwards. So he'd always filled the big and empty house with sounds, teaching himself and only learning what the instrument was called when he'd memorised pretty many tunes that sounded well enough together.

He'd never stopped playing either. As the years went by and loneliness seemed to pile on his shoulders, he'd always loose himself in his music. His mom had finally found out about the violin when he was fourteen. She'd been furious in her own low key and cold way. He was told that it used to belong to his grandma, an old family item that apparently he'd disgraced and destroyed. It didn't seem so valuable to her as she cut of each string though.

He'd climbed out his window and bought new ones a few days later when he could no longer control the strong urge to let his mind wander away with music.

Only years later, when he was sixteen, had he understood that it hadn't had anything to do with the violin being valuable or grandmas. No, she hadn't wanted him to turn 'even more rebellious' or one of those 'godforsaken hippies that think they can survive the cruel world with a task of amusement'. Those were a few things she'd said when Akaashi had wanted to take on a music scholarship. 'No son of mine will become a beggar playing on the street because he is so dull he can't see the world for what it is. There's no place for dreams in it, that's for sure.'

Maybe she'd only wanted what was best for him all along. Wanted him to 'make it' as she had with her economy. But she didn't seem so happy. Neither had she ever understood what music meant to her son. If she had, maybe he would have been allowed to follow it. Akaashi couldn't really explain what it meant to him either, only that he couldn't survive without it. He loved it so much, so he'd done what any 'rebellious' teenager would have done. He took the violin and ran.

He'd taken the scholarship and gotten into the school. His mother said that she wouldn't talk to him for even a second as long as went to that school. So they didn't talk for two years. Akaashi had ended the education earlier, being recognised by a scout and offered jobs immediately. He'd called her a week after that, when he'd been offered to play solo in a beautiful set up close to his old home. He'd asked her if she wanted to come, but she'd ended the conversation abruptly, not even after two minutes had passed.

So he'd been just as lonely as he'd always been. It hadn't really mattered because there was little else he knew about. He always had his music, so he got lost in it. He loved what he did, he loved to see the world and meet other musicians and do what he wanted to do without anyone ordering him otherwise. He was content with that.

And then he suddenly couldn't hear his metronome.

The sounds of the flutes on the far side of the orchestra disappeared. He missed calls were the phone was only metres away. Soon, he could no longer listen to his own familiar tunes without straining his ears.

And so suddenly, the life and career he'd built had come crashing down by something he couldn't control. The hearing aid had helped for a while, he could play on and pretend as nothing. But when word got out of his condition, he couldn't play in the big opera houses anymore, wasn't asked to attend solos in England or any of the likes. He was erased from his career, and there was not a single thing that he could do about it. Because it was a stamp, all of it beyond unworthy of a world-famous violinist. A nearly deaf player? No one wanted that.

The doctors said that the development was known in his family records, but had showed up only in old ages. They'd told him about how it was probably because of him always being surrounded by high decibels and lots of sounds. Saying that if he wanted to keep his hearing at all for a few years more, he'd probably need to stop playing violin altogether.

So once more, he was grounded. Shot back into reality were he could no longer escape with his music. Reading lips was hard, even though he could hear the undertones of speech, and he knew no one well enough for them to learn hand language for his sake so there wasn't much of a priority learning that even though it was easier.

At his lowest, Sugawara had found him. Akaashi had been stuck out in the rain, heading home from the latest doctor's appointment. He was down below twenty percent and had been told to quit his playing. He was cold and tired and despaired, lost in his thoughts. So he'd missed the sounds of a bike and was knocked over, falling over on the cold concrete. He'd just sat there for a while, unable to get up and staring at his bloodied hands that hadn't held a fiddlestick for many days. The bike had since long left his sight, but then there was another hand there. Pale and thin and reaching towards him to help him up.

Suga had made a small, sideway smile, asking him if he shouldn't get out of the rain, that a warm pot of tea was probably just what he needed.

Even since the first day, Akaashi had been sure that he'd never protest when someone declared Suga an angel on earth. One of the things about him, was that it was so easy to confide. Suddenly he'd found himself with a dry towel, a steaming cup, and rambling out his back story in the back of the cafés kitchen. And Sugawara had given him the warmest of hugs, _(back then, he hadn't had one for years, so he didn't even think about that he hugged back a stranger_ ). He'd also been asked if he didn't want to come back tomorrow for another cup and chat. Akaashi didn't want to be a burden for the unfamiliar person that had already been way to kind to him, but he couldn't find it in himself to not come. It was nice having someone to talk to.

Suddenly this had come to that, and Sugawara had offered him to rent an extra bedroom in his apartment. Apparently it was for three, and one of his old roommates _(Yaku was it?)_ had moved out a year ago. So Akaashi had checked it out, met Oikawa, and actually said yes.

That was not even two years ago, and yet he'd count Koushi and Touro like his family any day.

His mother? Not so much. He hadn't spoken to her since he was sixteen after all.

He didn't play for a living anymore. He had pretty much saved all of it up ( _some went to hotels as he moved around, but otherwise he had never felt the need to spend money_ ), enough for him to easily go a while without work, but he didn't want that. He needed something to keep his mind occupied during the days, so he started working at a library not too far away from the apartment. He did enjoy reading books on his free time (it became an replacement for the time he spent without a violin in his hands) and he was a very organised person. Never mind that not many places took in a worker whose only references were from music. So it was fine. An okay job.

He could hear the familiar words of his mother resonating in his head though. ' _You wake up from all dreams, so why destroy everything for yourself to chase them_?' That had been just hours before he'd been kicked out of her house. She'd only thrown him his old violin, saying in a cold and monotone voice that he shouldn't dare take a step back if he didn't come back without it.

Maybe he could have come back when his career dropped. He was sure that his mother had heard of it, but he never heard a word from her, so he didn't. Never really felt that he wanted to. Instead, after a nearly three months long break, he picked up his violin again. And he practised and practised as he'd always had. Only he didn't force his hearing aid up to hear it properly. He learnt how to play without it from the engraved tunes of his memory. Once every month, he'd tune up his aid and listen to them one and one to give some reminders. And soon he composed and played again as he'd always had. He knew that he was no worse than he was a year ago, but he never asked to play in front of audiences again. It was his escape, and he couldn't bare trying to catch his dream again only to be denied it because of the same reason. A reason he'd fought through, but that was still the only thing they seemed to see.

Maybe him playing would cause his hearing to disappear very soon. But it didn't matter too much, because just as he learned reading lips he learned to play deafly. So he could continue playing, continue loving it.

He was torn from both memories and his violin when there suddenly was a pat on his shoulder at the end of one piece. And lo and behold, there stood Oikawa, grinning like mad.

"I heard from a chatty source," he started, talking clearly, accurately and slowly as he always was kind enough to do when talking to the younger. His words though were spoken such that Akaashi immediately knew that this wasn't going to be a particularly pleasant conversation. "That my little owl's got a crush!" he sing sang as the ravenette carefully put down the instrument. Suga, that traitor.

"Whell I don't," was the only response Akaashi offered.

Well he definitely had.

That much was for sure when he later the same day saw a familiar mess of black and white spikes shooting over a bookshelf. Akaashi immediately stopped organizing and stacking the books in his arms, resisting the urge to actually sprint ( _oh holy, where had that even come from_?) over to Bokuto. Still, he didn't stop the thoughts from twirling around in his head. Was Bokuto here to see him? In that case, how did he even know where he worked? Of course Suga that chatterbox ( _why did no one else believe that he was nearly as bad as Oikawa_?) could have told him. Though Bokuto was off course working as an author, Akaashi realised, silently cursing himself for how his heart slightly sank. Off course he wouldn't search him up as if they were part of some love movie, it only made sense that he'd be in a bookshop. He put up the rest of the books in the precise order, carefully making sure that he wasn't smiling or anything as he made his way to the bobbing hair.

When he got around the edge of the bookshelf though, what he saw definitively wasn't Bokuto. No, it was the library janitor and a freaking upside down _floor mop_. Akaashi couldn't supress his groan even if he'd wanted to, burying his face in his hands as his cheeks grew hot. The janitor stared at him, so the violinist just decided to backtrack and turn away from the situation. Just as he crossed the very same corner he'd come from though, he collided head first into a broad chest. In his hurry he probably would have tripped if it wasn't for the two hands holding on to his arms and steadying his mistake.

He almost knew who he would see even before he looked up into those striking round and golden eyes ( _screw Oikawa, if there was anyone that looked like an owl, it definitively was this guy_ ). He couldn't exactly help how his eyes travelled down to the ( _holy, holy, s o s_ ) amplified biceps he was currently having his hands against. He'd probably need to have his hands pried away from there, was a thought that finally high started his mind. He took a step back, mind power all that kept him from blushing like crazy _(and the tiny blush that most certainly managed to break through, well that he would not speak about)._

The timerate was all in all barely 1.4 seconds, but it had indeed felt an eternity before Bokuto happily exclaimed "Hey Akaashi! What are you doing here?!"

 **A/N: Next time more interaction, shout-outs and hopefully some Bokuto backstory if I can figure it out!**

 **Have a lovely day! /Hugs MJ!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Saltishima: Thanks a ton, your review made me truly happy! You made me smile like crazy and I'm very glad to hear that it's appreciated seeing as I get pretty self-conscious when posting… Well, I wish you a lovely day/night hun!**

 **.Midnight: Aww, thanks love! Yeah they really are great together, love writing about them and it makes me very happy that you enjoyed it! (Love your name btw!)**

 **Sky Of Love: Many thank you's! Haha oh my, I must have made a mistake somewhere or there's been a misunderstanding because I'm a KuroKen shipper as well (and also Daisuga) XD Hopefully they'll show up with cameos later on!**

 **Nymouria chapter: Thank you darling, your review truly made me happy! No, Akaashi isn't deaf. He's got very bad hearing that has been going and does go down with time, so he will eventually become deaf. He read Bokuto's lips though, and I hope that became slightly clearer with the last chapter! Anyhow, thanks again and many hugs!**

 **Escana: Thanks so much dearest, it makes me so incredibly happy that you're enjoying it! I hope this part won't disappoint and I wish you a wonderful day!**

"Hey Akaashi! What are you doing here?!"

If Bokuto had been anyone else, Akaashi would have most certainly picked up on how the shock on the other's face seemed very fake and exaggerated. But he didn't, simply because he was stuck in his surprise for the short instant.

"Bokuto-san," he greeted back, using his hands _(that somehow seemed to_ _ **burn**_ ) to dust of the fabric of his black palazzos with one smooth movement. It was to buy some time to gather himself up, but he didn't want to admit that. He immediately took notice that Bokuto was taller than him as he straightened. He looked to be a shorter person while sitting down as he had such ( _okay, no don't you dare start staring at them now_ _Akaashi Keiji, that's not suiting_ ) broad shoulders. Maybe it was because he had long legs… ( _Okay, no, no, no: dangerous territory. Just keep looking up_.) "I work here actuallih."

"Aha, I understand," Bokuto answered him, and once more did the tone of beforehand-knowledge in his voice escape Akaashi. "I didn't pin you as the type to be a librarian, but I suppose you are pretty quiet and-" ( _here, Akaashi missed a spoken word as it was long. Bokuto spoke pretty slowly though in contrast to before, so it went okay so far_ ) "-I suppose," Bokuto said jokingly with a grin and Akaashi had to cover the small smile creeping up on him behind his fingers. This man was most certainly the type with a contagious smile.

"Frankly me neyther," he answered honestly, ignoring how the words hit a little too close for comfort. No, that was not where he'd seen himself a few years back. "But life happenss." Why was he even confiding that again? He didn't know.

Bokuto didn't seem to mind at all, just happily continuing with his exclamations. "Yeah, I get what you mean! Like, I always wanted to be an astronaut or Indiana Jones or something when I was little. Then my plan was for years to become a volleyball star, and now I'm an ( _fudge_ , _he missed another long word_ )- author, so!"

Akaashi nodded and started unconsciously playing with his fingers as he looked at the other with barely sealed curiosity. "Vollehball you say?" He hoped he'd translated the word right and wasn't confusing Bokuto. Meanwhile he was fighting hard to remember to pronounce properly. He'd left his hearing aid at home, simply because he knew he'd overused it in his previous conversation with Bokuto a few days ago. He'd had ringing in his ears for hours after that, and if he wanted to keep his current percents ( _which were very much needed to actually amplify the sounds when necessary_ ) he'd have to avoid it for a while as to not overstress his eardrum. Maybe that was good though, because he didn't have the temptation _(which he wasn't sure he could keep in check, he really liked Bokuto's voice_ ). Neither did he have enough hearing to catch his own words and scream around to hear fully, he worked in a library after all. That didn't mean he had the heart to shysh Bokuto to the length of not hearing the undertones of his voice at all though. It was easy to forget his pronunciations when he was caught up in the interesting man, but he didn't want to start stuttering in front of him again. Not that it was anything wrong with someone stuttering, he just felt it hard to know that his ability to speak properly was slipping from his hands. He didn't like how people would always stare at him when he said something wrong or slurry either. Definitively not Bokuto, and why the definitively was there was an area Akaashi didn't enter.

"Yeah!" The taller said, jamming a thumb against his ( _broad, have we established that yet_?) chest. "I was the ace, captain and wing spiker back in my high school team!"

"Impressive." It truly was. Akaashi felt for smiling even more as he found something they had in common. Well, used to anyway.

"How about you 'Kaashi? Have you ever played any sports?"

"I was seffer," Akaashi said, hoping that the word came out all right. He didn't know why but apparently T's were a little hard for him when he couldn't hear. He really should practise speaking more as he'd been awfully quiet since he no longer could hear himself. He could remember familiar tunes of his violin he'd played for hours upon hours much clearer than the sounds of speaking, simply because he'd heard and cared for the sounds so much more. As he'd taught himself he'd also thought more about it and consciously memorized everything carefully. He'd probably be able to play for longer than he'd be able to talk, the time of that edge unsure to him. Not that he'd ever been talkative at all, partly because he didn't use to have anyone to talk to. Now when he had Suga and Oikawa (… _and Bokuto_?) he did have people in his life to speak to, but not the ability to properly pronounce anymore. The hunting thought had hit him that maybe he should talk while he still could. This wasn't a place for practise though as Bokuto didn't know about his near deafness. He didn't want him getting all uncomfortable and backing away, thinking Akaashi couldn't listen, nor did he care to receive his pity or anything like that. He only wished he could hear what he said, controlling if it really was audible. As he watched the fascinated emotions display on Bokuto's face though, he knew he'd understood.

Confusion, understanding and happiness quickly took turns as the taller exclaimed: "Wait, setter as in- Wow you played volleyball?!"

"But only forh two yers," Akaashi nodded. He'd played all of his terms at the musical university, but ended it when he started travelling the world with his music. Volleyball was fun, but more off a side hobby that he couldn't have moving around. He still watched many games together with Oikawa and Suga though. From those words, Bokuto was fired up. He started telling all kinds of stories, about how Kuroo used to be the slyest blocker you could get a hold on, how it felt when he first got really hooked on volleyball into the detail, and much more. It was sometimes a little hard to keep up though as he continuously changed the names to 'the salty piece of salt' or 'my red-haired crow baby' (?), and such. It seemed Bokuto indeed had a pretty lively imagination, and there was no denying that he couldn't tell stories. Maybe his hearing missed a lot as if often did ( _especially during the part Bokuto would suddenly speak very quickly_ ), but Akaashi was hooked from the moment he started. He only just remembered that he was working about halfway. So he stacked the books and Bokuto followed close behind at all times. Lucky for him because if he wouldn't, Akaashi would be too far to read lips and hear the slightest of undertones. He missed bits and pieces as he looked away stacking as well, but it went okay. Bokuto soon tried to help out by stacking too, but he ended up always getting the literature wrong. In the end he carried books and gave them one and one to Akaashi as he put them up, because he wouldn't stop asking if he could help. One time Bokuto had even _picked him up_ when Akaashi couldn't reach a book left on top of the shelf, literally as if he weighed nothing at all. When he'd turned around to stare incredulously at the other, Bokuto had just let out a honest "What?". As if Akaashi wasn't supposed to react when he was without warning lifted up by muscular arms he'd pay to touch ( _wait… what_?!). ( _WHAT_.)

Eventually he gathered up his bearings enough to ask if Bokuto enjoyed reading. That off course got him to talk on again, giving Akaashi time to calm his ( _why,_ why _racing, Kuroo and Daichi had both repeatedly and randomly picked him up before in some kind of strength contest so he should be used to it_ ) heart.

"I don't read too much, I prefer writing! I don't know why, I just really like building up characters and getting to know and adjust them myself rather than having it out of my control, you know?" Frankly, no, Akaashi didn't know as he himself enjoyed reading because it gave him an escape from reality, knowing that there was nothing he could change anyway and that the happy ending eventually would come (e _xcept those books he'd read where it didn't, and those deserved to burn)._ Books were for him other people and other worlds to visit and not morph. He didn't utter any of that though because that was way too much of a sentence without his hearing aid. He was content just to read Bokuto's lips as he rambled on, learning what went on in his mind. Speaking of lip-reading, now the taller of the duo was speaking really quickly again. It had gone up and down a lot in quick turns, and when it was fast it was hard to hang with. Akaashi had practised really hard on reading them since his hearing had started to fade. It had been a good advantage to hear and read at the same time, but he still found it tough after barely two years of it.

"I (M _issed. Probably? Basically?_ ) just spew out what's on my mind! Nothing more, nothing less," Bokuto continued, cutely fired up with wide hand gestures to accompany." I don't like ( _missed_ _word again, drat)_ up and planning books because it kind of takes all the fun out of it neither," Bokuto said, grinning. Then he suddenly slowed down his speaking again again. "I write only when I have inspiration, I don't think there's any ( _um… particular?_ ) way of finding it."

Akaashi nodded, putting in a short comment and attentively trying to look at Bokuto's lips in between reading the authors letters of the forgotten books to stack them up.

And so it went on after that, they talked about pretty much the most random things ( _apparently, Bokuto didn't like Nutella, and Akaashi warned him that if he wanted to keep getting muffins, he should_ **never** _tell Suga that_ ). Akaashi didn't even notice that his own sentences were getting longer and more frequent, because unlike with so many others, he soon didn't feel so uncomfortable with talking in front of Bokuto. Whatever he said, Bokuto listened like crazy, always smiling or grinning afterwards. It was perhaps a little odd if Akaashi would have evaluated it, but he liked Bokuto's smile so he didn't stop his inputs.

Eventually though, a young teenager came and asked if they could keep it down a notch. Akaashi wasn't sure if he spoke loudly or not, ( _according to Suga and Oikawa he usually spoke too quietly when he didn't hear, probably because of how unconfident he felt talking without hearing it_ ) but he promised that they would. She'd looked at him a little strangely, succeeding in making Akaashi's mind spin in whether Bokuto noticed his strange talking or not. It felt like he should, seeing as he knew his speech was far from perfect. Still, Bokuto very much felt like the kind of person that would say what was on his mind and he hadn't commented anything since the stuttering comment in their first meeting. He suppressed those thoughts in order to hear what Bokuto would say next, turning around to face him.

"Well, I probably should stop ( _okay, that must have been 'disturbing', right_?) you when you're at work." ( _No, not already),_ Akaashi thought, surprised at his own disappointment. Bokuto started rubbing the back of his neck, ( _and Akaashi definitively didn't look away just to avoid staring at his bending biceps, nope)_ looking sheepish. Akaashi didn't really trust himself to speak as he couldn't know if the dissatisfaction would seep into his voice or not. Besides, he couldn't really figure out anything so say, so he simply nodded. "But it was nice meeting you again."

( _Did that comment warm Akaashi more than it should have? Most certainly_.) He barely registered the small smile that crossed his lips as he responded, "You too."

"Would you…" Bokuto started a bit hesitantly. ( _Why did Akaashi's heart jump again? Exactly what was this unfamiliar control this stranger had around his usually measured feelings_?) "Would you like to meet up for coffee sometime, or something? You know, nothing much, we can always see each other sometime at Suga's- or maybe you want much, I can buy you a cake as well, or lunch if you like that- of course that is if you even want to, we don't have to at all, I just-"

Akaashi smile simply grew, happy and genuine, not bothering at all to hide it behind his hand this time. He didn't try to figure out why it hit him so heartfelt being asked that either. Bokuto stopped right away with his rambling, their eyes locking, and perhaps a small shade of red grew up the author's neck. "I'd like thaf," Akaashi answered, a piece of shyness but no hesitation at all in his voice.

 **A/N: Treasured lovesick owls…**

 **I hope to see you soon love's!  
/hugs MJ**


	4. Chapter 4

p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A/N: Hello loves! /span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I'm so sorry that this story doesn't have a clear time line and that it alters a lot in different stuff but I wrote the first part a very long time ago. Hope it's possible to keep up with it either way hehe. Well, hope you'll enjoy this chapter!/span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""He said em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he'd like that,/em" Bokuto explained with a punctuation on each syllable. "As in he'd think it would be em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"fun/em! Or nice, pleasant or something, I don't know exactly but he'd. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Like that/em." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Whatever do you think he could mean with that," Kuroo responded without looking up from his phone. Candy Crush was currently taking all off his attention, even though it was doing nothing but kicking his ass. What the Mushroom didn't understand was the uttermost em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"importance/em of this situation. Class A. Therefore, Bokuto got even further out on his couch seat and proceeded to exclaim,/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Why aren't you more exited?!"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo finally paused his addictive game, doing a dramatic swirl of his head before looking with over exaggerated attention at Bokuto. "Wow, well it's almost like you'd expect me to be in shock after hearing it for the twentieth time?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, wow, it's not at all like this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me!" Bokuto responded with a try at the same dry tone Kuroo had used, but to no avail. His happiness shone straight through it. br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You said that the day you tried fried cheese as well. And when you found that Viking lamp. And when-"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto cut his roommate off, knowing that there was a likely chance that the list would go on. He'd always been a (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"n maybe slightly over the top/em) exhilarated person after all. "Okay, I see where you're coming from. But I can't really say I've ever met someone like him, you know?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, you've told me he's pretty. What else?" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"A slight pause. "Well, I don't know much about him," Bokuto answered, his tone slightly damped as he realised this. "But it's definitively not just his looks. He's just…" Here, he stopped, because it was very near impossible to describe Akaashi. He was beautiful, yes, but he was also simply fascinating. Like he had the world within him, and it needed to be unravelled. Bokuto loved his dry comments, the way he'd show patience and care like no other, his smart inputs and warm tone of voice. Most of all, he loved the strange feeling bubbling all throughout his stomach as he made Akaashi smile. He wanted to meet much by the simple reason to make him do that again. He knew one world that summed it all up the best. "He's just so captivating. He's a librarian (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"here, Bokuto promptly ignored Kuroo's "wow, exciting/em"), and he used to play volleyball as a setter!" (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Kuroo did actually seem to find that part stimulating/em). He did a short pause. "And he gave me a cupcake./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Kuroo laughed, ruffling his black hair up with one hand. "A cupcake?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Suga/em."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah, you must excuse me then. I wasn't aware it was a heaven's gift," Kuroo said with a fake gasp, leaning back in sudden laughter. Bokuto was just about to ask what the heck was so funny when his best friend wheezed his explanation out. "Wow, you've already got it so bad, huh?"br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto paused in his attempt to open his mouth, eyes growing wide as he understood what Kuroo was going on about. "I do not. I want nothing more than to meet him up and get a nice friend." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"(em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Well, just maybe. But he wasn't going to admit that to himself just yet. You couldn't just /emstrong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"like/strongem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" a person you'd only exchanged minutes with. But if he was to be very honest…/em)/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 393.75pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""If you say so," Kuroo responded ruefully, in which Bokuto quickly responded,/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I say so." Kuroo waited through the dragging silence, knowing what Bokuto would say next. "Do you think em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"he/em thinks it's a date?"br / br / Kuroo was completely quiet for a few seconds, opening up his game and leaving Bokuto thinking that his statement had gone through the Mushroom's skull. That was before Kuroo suddenly started murmuring something that sounded suspiciously much like the sounds of wedding bells. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto launched at him before he got through the fifth note./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Aaah, our little owl has got/strong…! Eh." As Oikawa lost his artificial words Suga quickly helped with excitedly signing strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"a/strong strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"crush /strongfrom his right, jumping up and down. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I do not/strong," Akaashi both signed and spoke to get his message across as clearly as possible. A crush was something only young people could get by a few meetings with another person. Maybe he was… Slightly interested. Yeah. That sounded well enough. Because he'd only met Bokuto for short moments, didn't know him well enough about anything. He didn't even know if the man was homosexual or not. As that thought hit him, he couldn't help the slightest lowering of his shoulders. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Off course Oikawa picked that up. He'd studied psychology for many years and never failed to use his knowledge of the meaning behind the slightest of changes in the air, even though he seldom said them out loud. He'd always been particularly attentive around Akaashi, being a pretty overprotective, not to speak of overreacting, person. Add that with Suga's never failing concern, and Akaashi had a hard time getting away with hiding his emotions. Therefore, he wasn't shocked as Oikawa asked, "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"What's wrong/strong?" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Well, he'd probably be perstered about it if he didn't answer, so he did. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Nothing, really. Just keep in mind that as far as I know, he's straight, aromatic or not even interested." /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi had no idea of how the proper sign for either aromatic or interested was done, so he hoped his small charade marks got their meaning across (it wasn't unusual for any of them to use imagination after all). Suga had known sign language almost fluently on beforehand because of his deaf little sister, and had taught Akaashi a lot between the courses he had taken himself for years now. But it was no doubt a complex language, and they all found themselves at loss sometimes. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Anyway/strong, strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I can't have a crush on a person I know nothing about/strong."span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 100.3pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh don't even try it, Aka-chan,"/span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" Oikawa signed and spoke at the same time, doing dramatic expressions. After a moment's thought he gathered up most of the signs to continue his sentence, jabbing a finger at Suga. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Just like Mr and Mr Sawamura, you were both strongly hit by love at first sight, and now you'll forever be living on clouds and sunshine, in the arms of your beefy knight." /strongSuga snorted as Oikawa hugged himself and flexed his ungenerous bicep with movements way over the top/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You just reverted back to Oikawa-san to me/strong," Akaashi signed, maybe a little too quickly for Oikawa to catch properly. He didn't have time to find out as Sugawara interrupted./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"You guys are too cute together,/strong" Sugawara signed with a wide smile. Then he sat himself on their counter, beside freshly cooled chocolate cookies and their currently awaiting strawberry filling. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Know where you're going on your date yet/strong?"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa looked slightly lost at the signed word 'date', so Akaashi waited for Suga to verbally clear it up, huffing as Oikawa's face just brightened like crazy. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You've got a date together?!" The other burst it out within a second, forgetting to use sign language. Didn't matter as Akaashi knew what he was going to say even before he'd said it. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's not ah date," He cleared up slowly, crossing his arms./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"He should take the yellow shirt/strong," Suga signed with a grin beside him. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 313.9pt;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-tab-count: 1;" /span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You are the worsht."/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Definitively with black jeans!" /span/strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Oikawa decided, promptly ignoring Akaashi's words./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"cCc/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stood outside their apartment complex the next day, fiddling his hands repeatedly. Honestly, he had no idea whether this was a date or not. He knew that he and Bokuto were getting lunch, but he had no idea where or how casual it was supposed to be. With that came the question off what the dress code was, because he didn't want to seem too formal or too sloppy. Therefore, he'd quickly given up on trying to decipher what was best and simply went with his yellow sweater (yes, the one Suga told him to wear) and riffled, black jeans. And if he was to be completely honest on everything, he was really nervous. Simply because, he'd never really done anything like this. Sure, he went out on lunch with Suga and Oikawa from time to time, and during the week the three would repeatedly hang out and talk in the former's bakery. But he knew them inside and out, and they both knew sign language. All of his other relationships (and even though there had been a few, none had lasted for more than a few weeks) had been before he stopped / br / Sure, it was a bit off a relief that Suga had apparently told Bokuto about his hearing, and that their meet up was still on. But it had gone okay at the library simply because it was deathly silent there and Bokuto had spoken really loudly (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Akaashi really was a bad librarian, wasn't he?/em). It wasn't too hard to understand the content with those undertones and his expressive mouth movements. But in a restaurant? With other sounds, from hardware, people, bells and busy streets? Without the help off small sounds, his lip reading was way too far off to hold a proper conversation. Their first time, Bokuto had commented on his stuttering. Something that he tried to train away, but it was hard as he so rarely heard himself. What if Bokuto found it abnormal? Or what if he simply wasn't patient enough to repeat his words, to clarify everything?/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He would have brought his hearing aid, but he'd kind of promised Suga he wouldn't use it. He'd used it yesterday at a meeting with work, and after an hour he'd gotten pretty dizzy. The static in his ears was close to ringing, until it got harder to hear with it than without. He knew that he wasn't allowed to use it within such short time periods (he wasn't even recommended to use it at all) but he didn't trust his talking much when he didn't have it. As much as it made him uncomfortable, he had to leave it if he didn't want his hearing to suddenly short-cut. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Just as he looked down at his phone to check the time (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"just one tiny minute before 13/em!) he felt a somehow familiar presence to his left, maybe ten metres away. He didn't look up however, because Bokuto seemed to have made a clear stop. Akaashi couldn't help a tiny smile tilting his lips to the side as he felt the others gaze, yet he patiently waited until the white haired man finally walked the last of the way. Bokuto called a greeting that could just be heard over the half-empty street of Tokyo, but his smile could be seen for miles. br / br / em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"He's always so radiating/em, Akaashi thought quietly, looking up and taking his own moment to stare. A little more discretely, hopefully (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yet doubtfully/em). /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hello, Bokuto-san," he said back, sliding his phone down his back pocket. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's smile didn't waver, and somehow it made Akaashi feel all warm. It was as if Bokuto had found a way to transfer energy and light from the sun itself. "How are you?!" He said, nearing a tiniest bit more as if going in for a hug, but instead he just threw out his (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"yes. Still beefy/em.) arms out and smiled wider (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"do his lips ever crack from that?Maybe in the winter?)./em/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm good, thank yo'uh," He replied, before, hoisting up his bag in a slightly self-conscious gesture. Bokuto really was putting all his attention at him. Not that he particularly minded, it just… Felt unusual. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm great! The weather is wonderful and I-" Akaashi tried frantically to keep up, but a car honking on the other side of the building threw him off and suddenly he knew Bokuto's lips were moving way too fast for him. Before he knew what to do with that, Bokuto suddenly gestured for him to join, turning around to walk down the street. Akaashi nodded, and did so to find himself in a cab a few minutes later. In the quiet car, he felt relieved that he could pick up the conversation a bit in the quie again, but even so, he didn't talk too much. It seemed okay as Bokuto rambled expertly, catching Akaashis undying attention in every weird topic. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He felt a little disappointed as the cab ride got to an end really quickly, but he quickly reminded himself that Bokuto wasn't going anywhere. As he stepped out of the car (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Bokuto's hand jerking back and forth as if it maybe wanted to help him out but never found the courage to do so/em), Akaashi took a look at the place they'd stopped in front of. It wasn't too much, a cute lunch place that he'd walked past a few times. Its décor was simple but nicely coloured, windows many and wide. The colours were soft, and the cashier waved at Bokuto before they'd even entered. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"To Akaashi's great relief, the place was nearly completely empty. The only guests were an old couple that sat in the back, a woman on her phone and a teen with an ungodly pile of school work. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi ordered a black coffee, while Bokuto ordered a hot chocolate, which was actually made from white chocolate. Akaashi had no idea that even existed, but he honestly thought the order was kind of cute. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto held himself to start a conversation until the two were sitting down at a small table, just by the largest window. Most of it blurred by his ears as usual, but he understood enough so it didn't really matter to much to him. Frankly, he was pretty okay with just looking at Bokuto, catching the main subject off his different topics and seeing how excited he was about them all. Though honestly even that was a bit hard because man did he speak fast, Akaashi almost gave up on lip reading after a while. He'd trained hard on it for three years, but it was an impossible language like no other. If it had been anyone else, he probably would have given in, but he was to intrigued by how interesting stories Bokuto seemed to have. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It also felt nice that there weren't a lot of people there to judge his slurred speech. Therefor, he felt comfortable enough to talk pretty much, and even to let out a laugh or two (em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"that, honestly were probably style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe'd heard he did that/em.)span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"So it was pretty great. It was nice. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"But not before long, other guest started coming. It started with a couple talking pretty loudly, then came three more, and suddenly there was a shouting group of teenagers just behind them. Akaashi just stared as Bokuto's voice became drowned static, and many minutes passed without him being able to give any form of input. He felt his chest begin to tighten, because okay now Bokuto must think that he wasspan style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanbeing ten times more rude than before. Must think that Akaashi was bored, or didn't care, or didn't em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"try/em, even though he did, he wanted to hear Bokuto's stories so bad, wanted to-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Suddenly, a hand was waved in front of his eyes and Akaashi found himself jumping a bit. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hey, are you okay?" Once more, Bokuto managed to speak a slow sentence, and his expression showed that it was almost unsurely as he had a concerned crease between his eyebrows. "I'm just babbling; you must be getting bored." That was what he said, right? Or was it Bokuto who was getting bored?/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi swallowed, opening and closing his mouth three times before he willed the words out/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ah can't hehre you," he tried to get style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHe couldn't hear his own voice at all, in differ to the first time they'd talked. He felt the gazes of the teenagers at the table behind them, and he wondered just how loudly he'd said that. Or maybe just wrongly. But to him, the place was both buzzing with all the sounds in the world and nearly completely silent. Bokuto kept the concerned look for just a moment longer before he nodded quickly, getting up from his seat. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi's eyes fell down to the table, shoulders slumping a little bit. Off course Bokuto would leave. He'd known that. Maybe he would never see him again now, but that shouldn't come as painfully as it did. They had no future. Not once his hearing was gone, it was enough trouble even now that he actually had some left. Maybe there wouldn't have been a future for them anyway, but this was without a doubt a deal breaker. Bokuto didn't know sign language. Akaashi couldn't hear him without destroying his last hearing with his aids, couldn't comprehend more than the slowest of basic sentences with lip reading. They were doomed from the start, really. And with that thought Akaashi realised that his eyes had slowly gone slightly moist. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He'd known this. He knew Bokuto would leave, realized that-/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And then there was a calloused hand in front of his vision, gently reaching out as if to help him up. Akaashi's eyes shot up to meet Bokuto's, warm and golden, a gentle and pardoning smile on his lips. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""It's okay," was a sentence Akaashi could understand from his mouth, but the one coming next was completely lost on him. But he slowly took Bokuto's hand anyway, following as it guided him up. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto didn't let go of his hand as they wandered outside, and so he let himself be steered towards a calmer alleyway between a few closed boutiques. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi was about to open his mouth, most certainly to apologise for being so difficult, for making things impossible between them. But before he'd done so, Bokuto quickly searched through his backpack. Ignoring the small notes that blew out, the other nearly aggressively pulled out a small notepad. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"With a grin on his face, with a slimmer of tongue sticking out between his lips, Bokuto dug for a pen and scribbled on it for a second. Then, he pushed it towards Akaashi's chest with that grin still in place, yet somehow he seemed encouraging and kind as he did so./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi stared at him for just a second longer before turning his gaze down to the papers now in his hold./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hello/strong." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He stared in slight wonder at the, oh so simple word. Then his eyes darted to Bokuto's now warm smile, his beautiful eyes. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi took the pen as it too was pushed at him, letting it hover a bit unsurely in his hands. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"Hi/strong," he wrote back after his second off hesitation, feeling some tension slowly drop from his shoulders./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto carefully took the items back, their hands touching just slightly, before he quickly scribbled down his messy letters and held it up next to his face. "strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"I really enjoyed tonight/strong! span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span:D"/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't help staring at him for a bit longer, contemplating if he meant that. He'd said barely anything, hadn't even managed to listen properly. He'd made their meetup a boring mess, even interrupting it before they'd finished drinking. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"As Bokuto realized Akaashi didn't know what to say, he kept writing, obviously a longer message this time around. Akaashi waited with his heart fluttering like birdwings in his chest./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""We can use paper, a tolk or anything you'd like, it's fine by me! I just…! Kinda want to meet you again."/span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span/span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Here, a deep red blush crept up Bokuto's neck, dusting his cheeks and ears but making way for his shy, yet wide, smile. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Akaashi couldn't stop his own smile even if he'd wanted to. Because, suddenly, there wasn't a need for words anymore. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Throwing his previous nervousness to the wind, he leant slightly up on his tip toes to peck Bokuto quickly on the cheek, re intertwining their hands as he came down. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto just stared, his already wide eyes even larger. He nodded his head up and down two times, not that Akaashi knew what he wanted said with that. He just kept smiling, this time being the one to take the lead as he dragged Bokuto out of that dark alley./span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And so, they just slowly walked side by side, eyes travelling over the beautiful landscape, over each other, and over their feet as they blushed. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bokuto's warm hand, his amazing smile, his comforting presence and lingering eyes spoke volumes. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"They didn't touch the notepad again until they had to go their separate ways, stopping right in front of the bakery where they'd first met. And all that was written was a promise in some bendy letters. /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Again."/span/strong/p 


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